To DVR or not to DVR?

Aug 13, 2012 11:26 PM

So I'm getting one of those phone/internet/cable packages for my apartment, as I've been dragging my feet on that issue since I moved in.

My question is, should I get the DVR to go with it? The cost for the first year will be just shy of $80/mo. To have the DVR rental, it would cost $11 more a month, totaling at around $91/mo. I have an HDTV, but the cost for HD channels and such has no additional charge.

Top Answers

Absolutely without question, yes, get the DVR. It's worth the money to be able to skip commercials alone. And can you even put a price on the ability to pause your TV so you can answer the phone or go to the bathroom?

If you watch 2 hours of TV per day, in one week you'll have 7 hours of extra time from skipping commercials. Fifteen minutes of every hour of TV is ads. A DVR is like AdBlock+ for your TV. That's how much better it makes the experience.

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Absolutely without question, yes, get the DVR. It's worth the money to be able to skip commercials alone. And can you even put a price on the ability to pause your TV so you can answer the phone or go to the bathroom?

I've always used a computer as a DVR. Windows 7 Media Center is pretty awesome for that task. However, I haven't had cable since Comcast started encrypting channels, necessitating the use of a DTA or cablecard. Probably isn't really prudent anymore if only looking for straight-up DVR service. However, if you're technically inclined enough to benefit from the flexibility a computer provides, then it's worth consideration.

Over the past several years I've always had my DVR and used it very often up until recently. After my move I decided to go without the DVR option with my Cable/Internet bundle and I can honestly say that I haven't really missed it. If TV shows are missed I can typically find them online usually free of charge after a certain amount of time, sometimes even instantly. If I miss sporting events I will usually just go online and check the box score and then watch any highlights or read articles on the event. While yes it was convenient at the time to be able to save all of these in one location saving upwards of $100+ a year was worth it in my opinion.

If you watch 2 hours of TV per day, in one week you'll have 7 hours of extra time from skipping commercials. Fifteen minutes of every hour of TV is ads. A DVR is like AdBlock+ for your TV. That's how much better it makes the experience.

While I would like to have a DVR, I don't see me using it enough to justify the price. As was mentioned before, it will be available soon/instantly over the interwebz. @rprebel: I still can't get the danged picture-imbedding thing right on DW. Any easy instructions?

@jnissel: That's a good point. If they want your business bad enough they'll negotiate. my DirecTv contract just expired and I told them I was consdiering switching to UVerse. I got them to take $30 off my bill for the first 12 months then $10 off for the next 12 months after that, and they threw in six months of Starz and Showtime as well.

@jsimsace: No code needed for images. Just put in the url and it'll take care of the rest. I don't know what image services work and which ones don't, but I used imgur. When posting, you'll probably need to use the direct link. That's the one that starts with an i.

I say NO DVR. I personally refuse to let TV be that important in my daily life. If I can't watch it then I will either watch it when it comes on again (if it does) or I just miss it. Although, I know people who DVR just so that they can FF thru the commercials.

Funny, but your reasoning (TV just isn't that important to me) is one of my reasons for using a DVR, probably second to stripping out commercials, which is my main reason by far.

So much of the time, I'll "bank" episodes of a show and watch it as a marathon near or after the end of the season, either during bad weather or when I'm home sick or cannot sleep or traveling but not doing the driving.

@driley1974: I agree with baqui63. your reasoning is one of the reasons I got my DVR and it was the sole reason I was able to convince my wife we needed it. She got tired of having to plan schedules around shows we wanted to watch so now we DVR everything and watch it all on the weekends. It's worked out great!!

I almost never watch shows live anymore, as it makes more sense to wait for enough of the show to be recorded that commercials can be skipped without having to wait, for example, about 17.5 minutes for an hour long show. (My DVR setup processes shows once they are recorded and marks where commercials are located so they can (usually) be skipped with a single buttonpress... before the shows are processed, I can skip forward in 30-second jumps.)

We just switched to DirectTV back in June and it automatically came with the HD DVR.

To be honest, it really depends what your needs are. If theres a show you really want to watch but you won't be home (ie: sports games, movies, tv shows etc) then that's one point for the DVR. Another good point for the DVR is that you can pause and rewind on the show you're watching (could only rewind to the point where you switched to the channel unless it was already pre-recording). Pretty cool if you want to watch an instant replay of something funny/interesting that just happened on TV (you could google/youtube examples). With DirectTV you could also schedule the DVR to record a show from your smartphone. Also with directTV you could also view and record shows from other TVs in the house (as long as you have the proper receivers).

That's pretty much it with the DVR. The only complaint I have is that with 300 hours of DVR time, it could barely record like 10 episodes of the Olympics.

So it really depends if you really need these features. If you think you can live without it, just save your money!

What sucked for us is that my parents changed their minds with the number of receivers we ordered and they changed their minds again once the cable guy was in our home, but we'd have to pay extra (that what was once free before the guy came) for the receiver my parents took out from the initial order. Just saying though. So one of our TVs ended up as standard definition (which looks so crappy now from watching HD) without the DVR functions.

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